When you get up in the morning, you must have a song - Ray Charles

Friday, May 4, 2012

Clarinet Summit - Vols. 1 & 2



 I'm sitting on back patio, pleasantly buzzed. Dark clouds are crawling over the mountain. Lighting and thunder announcing the imminent rain. I love an early spring thunderstorm. But there is something special when the music connects with the atmosphere and every thing just sounds...special.

This evening was one of those and these records were the soundtrack. Tonight I offer up both of the India Navigation lps in their unabridged form.

What is so freaking cool about these lps is the way that 3 younger musicians, all coming from different places in the idiom were able to lure an old master out of retirement.There are far to many highlights but a couple are so good it would be criminal to leave them unmentioned. For me, Murray's original solo piece is as cool as anything ever performed on bass clarinet. The Hamilton/Batiste duet on Honeysuckle Rose is a classic mentor - student outing, where everything comes full circle, brilliantly.
  Vol two approaches being a Duke tribute and yet you can almost feel the joy in the performers as everything falls so completely together swinging the the tunes they all grew up on. And just when you think you may have had enough... they reprise splendidly a near perfect improvisational piece.

 The clarinet is such a damn cool instrument that is so overlooked it's crazy. I'm thinking a might declare this the "Summer of Clarinet" and focus on posting great clarinet stuff for the next few months.*


Clarinet Summit - VolumeI

1.Band Intro
2. Groovin' High
3. The Jeep's Blues
4. Sweet Lovely
5. Sticks and Bones
6. Honeysuckle Rose
7. The Washington Square Park Episode
8. Clarifavors

Clarinet Summit - VolumeII

1. Mood Indigo
2. Night Mist Blue
3. Waltz A Minute
4. Creole Love Call
5. Solo and Ballad for Four Clarinets
6. Satin Doll
7. Clarifavors


Alvin Batiste - clarinet
John Carter - clarinet
Jimmy Hamilton - clarinet
David Murray - bass clarinet


IN-1062
IN-1067

* sure..... I will.

6 comments:

george said...

Your "Summer of Clarinet" will be welcome.

Thank You.

Jazzhound said...

Thanks for this very rare gem.

The Clarifavours track on VolII is missing. It's shorter than the version on VolI. The 2nd Introductions track on VolI is really Mood Indigo from VolII. I've tried to find the second Clarifavours but no luck so far.

The CD version I found is missing some tracks too.

Hookfinger said...

Hmmm, yes there was some confusion when converting this. I will get on it and fix the links. All will be as it should and you will have your version of Clarifavors soon.

Hookfinger said...

OK the links should be fixed now...and the joke is on all the clowns who have kept downloading the old links without reading or leaving comments.

mr phil said...

I used to have this nutty little Gus Bivona clarinet gem in my vinyl collection:

http://www.amazon.com/ALLENS-STARS-JAZZ-GIBBS-STEVE-ALLEN-GUS-BIVONA/dp/B0024N2Q4Y

Recorded at Hollywood producer (musicals, Elvis movies) Joe Pasternak's house in 1958. Steve Allen, Al Viola, Red Mitchell and Terry Gibbs are also on the very loose jam session. It would be great if you could unearth a copy.

Boletus Joe said...

Howdy...love Clarinet stuff... Have you any Don Byron? If not here is a couple of links for some of his stuff....

Plays The Music of Micky Katz.. (clezmer-ish)
http://www.mediafire.com/?bbeli9dj9ymiecb

Tuskegee Experiments...
http://www.mediafire.com/?hl1ed6la1k4p43c

Hope you like these